Stalled Projects, Now in One Place

The Chicago Spire skyscraper is among the projects around the country stalled by the sluggish economy.

Have a stalled project? Now you can show it off to the world.

The American Institute of Architects today launched a website that catalogs stalled development projects around the country in a bid to match investors with troubled projects and restart construction.

The effort, underway since the summer, speaks to the trying times for the architects given the slowdown in development. While real estate values have recovered some, new development has been in very short supply given low job growth and uncertainty over the future.

That translates into few opportunities for architects: the Architectural Billings Index has shown decreasing work levels in the profession for five of the last six months.

With this arid landscape in mind, the AIA’s database allows developers, architects, or most anyone else the ability to post details about a stalled project. It also lists investors looking for projects.

“We see this as a vehicle to be a catalyst in helping to identify projects that have merit,” said Clark Manus, the AIA’s president. “The big motivation for us is to make sure the info is out there.”

The thinking for the AIA is that until now, there wasn’t any central place to go in the real estate industry for investors looking to finance troubled projects.

Of course, for many projects, an increase in transparency doesn’t necessarily translate into successful financing. Some of these developments are holes in the ground for a reason: they don’t make economic sense, and it would take more than a broadening of the investor base to fix that.

For now, the website only lists a handful of projects, but the AIA hopes it will grow quickly now that it’s launched.